SynCEnotes Readme ================= Hello you out there. Did you hassle all the time about syncing your Microsoft Outlook Notes with your Windows CE device, like me? Here comes SynCEnotes, the software that allows you to sync your notes. This is a time limited freeware version. Initially I planed to remove the time limit upon release of the first production verion. Since my goal to find a few sponsors to earn some money was not successful until now, I want to keep the chance to make you download a new version for about every 6 months. This should be not to much work for you and it keeps the product interesting for potential sponsors in the future. SynCEnotes will stay freeware. The newest version is always available on the web page of the author (-> see "Contact"). +---------------------------------------------------------+ | Upgrade Note | | ============ | | If you already used an earlier version of SynCEnotes | | it is recommended to disconnect the device and remove | | SynCEnotes on the device before installing the new | | version. Your database won´t be deleted and you´ll be | | able to access your data with the new version. Just to | | make sure, it would be no bad idea to export your notes | | to ASCII files before you delete the old version. | +---------------------------------------------------------+ Sponsorship =========== Ok, I said SynCEnotes should stay available to everybody for free. But as you might notice there´s a nag screen that pops up every fifth start. I think that´s not too much inconveniance for you if you think what you get for nothing. On the other hand this is a way for me to earn some money. The sponsors will also make a good deal, just think about the guys who use Windows CE devices: Managers, Business Travellers, IT Professionals etc. So if you know someone who might be interested in a sponsorship, maybe you could forward him this document and tell him your opinion about this nice little application. Thanx a lot. A Great Thank You to all who helped me ====================================== Many people used the previous versions and did help me to improve functionality, reliability and usability. Recent development couldn´t have been done that fast without you. Thanx to you for supporting me with your ideas, tests and your time!!! V1.02 ===== 1. Microsofts Active Sync 3.0 works now fine with SnyCEnotes. 2. Some minor bug fixes have been made. BTW: There´s an online help which will be installed to your CE device. It describes all the features and options of the desktop components also. System Requirements =================== SynCEnotes requires Windows CE 2.0 or higher and Windows 95 / Windows NT 4.0 or higher on the desktop machine. Data can be exchaned with Microsoft Outlook 97 and 98. I did no tests with the Outlook 2000 beta but I´ve been told that it should work. SynCEnotes works on HPCs, HPC Pros and PPCs. Just make sure to get the right version. It usually needs approximately 250 KB memory on the CE device. The application itself needs about 60k, the ActiveSync povider about 170k. The rest is for the online help. SynCEnotes uses the MFC (Microsoft Foundation Classes). If they are not already installed on your device, the installer will add a pretty large DLL (about 300-450k) to your \windows directory. Most HPC and all HPC Pros (as far as I know) have this DLL built into ROM. But most of the PPC, especially the older ones don´t have it. So you have to take care, that you´ve got enough main memory. Only the SynCEnotes application resides in the install directory and therefore can be moved to a CF card. This limitation has nothing to do with the implementation of SynCEnotes, it exists because Windows CE requires some files to be placed in the \windows directory. On the desktop Microsoft Windows CE Services 2.2 are highly recommended though the software runs with older versions. Installation ============ To install SynCEnotes is really simple. A setup program is provided with this distribution that does all the work for you. Copy all files to a temporary directory of your choice, connect your device, then start the setup program. +---------------------------------------------------------+ | Upgrade Note | | ============ | | If you already used an earlier version of SynCEnotes | | it is recommended to disconnect the device and remove | | SynCEnotes on the device before installing the new | | version. Your database won´t be deleted and you´ll be | | able to access your data with the new version. Just to | | make sure, it would be no bad idea to export your notes | | to ASCII files before you delete the old version. | +---------------------------------------------------------+ On the PC --------- You need the Microsoft Windows CE Services installed on your desktop PC to use SynCEnotes. The ActiveSync provider for your desktop machine is copied to your Windows system directory. If you want to uninstall SynCEnotes, you have to use the software applet of the control panel to remove this desktop provider. After this you´ll still see the SynCEnotes entry in your Active Sync Status. To remove it you have to re-create your partnership or use a registry editor and remove the SynCEnotes key in the current user section. On the CE device ---------------- Setup launches your Windows CE Application Manager to install the CE part of SynCEnotes. You can use the default application directory or specify another one. However, some files are copied to the Windows directory of your CE device. A desktop icon is created for you to start SynCEnotes. To uninstall SynCEnotes, use the Application Manager or the remove programs applet of your CE devices control panel. The database with your notes will not be removed from the device. This has the advantage that you can reuse your notes if you decide to install SynCEnotes again later. If you want to remove the database you have to use one of the various database deletion utilities for Windows CE. If you use Windows CE Services 2.2 or later the last step of the installation is to disconnect the device and do a warm reset according to your device manufaturers instructions. +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Important | | ========= | | For versions of the Windows CE Services previous to 2.2 it is | | necessary to create a new partnership. Please follow the | | instructions of the Windows CE Services documentation to do this. | +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ Future Plans ============ - Encryption support for your notes. I´d like to use the Crypto API for this. It will limit the functionality to CE 2.1 devices. Since most CE vendors provide upgrades for their devices this should not be a problem. - A german version (since I´m a german resident and this is my native language). The only reason why I didn´t already provide it is, that the overall amount of web space required will not fit to the space my ISP offers for free. Since the software is well modularized, other developers should be able to localize to other countries. Tell me if you need the resource files! Version History =============== V1.02 - ActiveSync 3.0 support - Minor bug fixes - Expiration: February 2000 V1.0 - The first release (non-beta) version of SynCEnotes. - Full support for the virtual keyboard on the PPCs. - Few minor bug fixes. - Improved synchronization performance for dealing with many notes. - Installer checks the device type and prevents faulty installations. - Expiration: February 2000 V0.98 final beta - Support for the PPC and HPC Pro platforms - Full support for categories - Great performance improvements on the device - Performance improvements for the synchronization process - Printing - View filter for the CE device - Syncronization filter for the CE device - Expiration: October 99 V0.95: - Initial public release. - Increased performance. - Improved Find functionality. - Fixed a nasty bug that corrupted the database when having two application instances running at the same time. - Put all the language specific stuff in resources. - Expiration: September 99 V0.9: - First internal version. Only a developer release. - Expiration: July 99 Legal ===== This section only applies to SynCEnotes V1.02. It might be changed in future versions. SynCEnotes may be used free of any charge for private or commercial purposes. It is provided 'as it is' without any warrenty. Use it at your own risk. SynCEnotes always has to be provided as it is without any modification in this archive. Additional or missing files are not permitted. SynCEnotes has not to be included in any distributions, web archives or similar things without explicit permission of the author. The only source for SynCEnotes is the web page mentioned in the contact section. All products mentioned here are registerd trademarks of thier owners. Contact ======= Christian Weinberger Savitsstreet 24 81929 Munich Germany http://weinberger.home.pages.de mailto:christian.weinberger@t-online.de